Friends: Screams are Zimmerman's

Tuesday

Jul 9, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 9, 2013 at 10:47 AM

SANFORD, Fla. - The dispute over who screamed for help the night George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin dominated Zimmerman's trial yesterday, with five friends saying the voice belonged to the neighborhood watch coordinator and the victim's father insisting it was his son's dying plea.

SANFORD, Fla. - The dispute over who screamed for help the night George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin dominated Zimmerman's trial yesterday, with five friends saying the voice belonged to the neighborhood watch coordinator and the victim's father insisting it was his son's dying plea.

The testimony of Zimmerman's friends, in Seminole County Court, lent support to his claim that he killed the unarmed black teenager in self-defense.

His second-degree murder trial could turn on the identity of the voice heard in the background of a 911 emergency call on the night of Feb. 26, 2012, to police in Sanford, Fla., where Zimmerman, 29, shot Martin, 17, triggering a national debate on race and guns.

Martin's mother and brother previously told the jury of six women that they recognized the voice of Martin, when the prosecution concluded its side of the case on Friday. They were followed by Zimmerman's mother and uncle, who testified for the defense that it was their relative pleading for help.

That dispute continued in court yesterday, when the five Zimmerman friends said they recognized the screams as coming from him.

The defense team then called two police detectives who had played the audio for Martin's father, Tracy Martin, in the days after the shooting. The detectives testified they asked Tracy Martin if he could recognize the voice and that he said, "No."

But Tracy Martin contested that account yesterday, saying, "I never said 'No, that wasn't my son's voice.'??" When he had the chance to listen to the recording repeatedly, he said, he believed it was his son.

"I was listening to my son's last cry for help; I was listening to his life being taken," Martin said.

As the defense case neared its end, it remained uncertain whether Zimmerman would choose to testify. Zimmerman could face up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, although either side can request that the jury also consider the lesser offense of manslaughter, with a maximum penalty of 30 years.

In a defeat for the prosecution, Judge Debra Nelson ruled that defense lawyers can introduce evidence that Martin had the active ingredient of marijuana in his system when he was killed.

Toxicology tests showed THC in Martin's system, and Zimmerman told a police operator just before the shooting that Martin "looks like he's on drugs."

The prosecution argued the evidence was prejudicial, and the defense countered that it was relevant given Zimmerman's observation that Martin could be on drugs.

Police in Sanford at first decided against arresting Zimmerman, who is white and Latino, accepting his claim of self-defense. That ignited protests and cries of racial injustice in Sanford and major cities across the United States.

It also drew attention to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law, which police cited in initially declining to arrest Zimmerman, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon that was fully loaded with hollow-point rounds.

The screams were recorded in the background of a 911 call placed by a neighbor who called to report two men fighting. The screams end when a shot rings out from Zimmerman's Kel Tec 9mm pistol.

An FBI voice-recognition expert testified last week that the screams were too short and the audio quality too poor to apply standard scientific voice-identification techniques, saying the next-best method to identify the voice was by a listener who knew the person his whole life.

Among yesterday's witnesses was John Donnelly, who said Zimmerman was "like a son" and who donated $3,000 to Zimmerman's defense and bought him $1,700 worth of clothes for his trial.

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